Harry Milvaine Part 53

A few hours afterwards, 'Ngaloo might have been seen marching about among Harry's troops, with a sottish kind of a smile on his face.

'Ngaloo was taking lessons in modern warfare. He told Harry, when he met him, that he meant to remodel his own army upon the principles of Googagoo's.

The cross-bows greatly took his fancy. So did the amazons.

He could not tire looking at them, and as soon as he got home, he said, he would arm and drill every one of his wives, and make amazons of them.

"And if they do not be good soldiers," he added, "why, there is the tongs."

He snapped that weapon as he spoke, and cackled and laughed as if he had said something very clever and witty.

The next stupid thing that 'Ngaloo did was to take Harry by the arm, and tell him with a burst of confidence, which was no doubt meant to be very friendly, that when they returned to King Kara-Kara's, and captured the white slaves, Harry should have no less than two of them, and that he, 'Ngaloo, would only keep four to himself.

Harry burst out laughing in the great king's face; but instead of being offended, 'Ngaloo was delighted, for he thought that Generalissimo Harry Milvaine was pleasedly acquiescing in his pretty little arrangement.

'Ngaloo was so delighted that he must needs go and help himself to another dose of his brain-devouring rum or fire-water.

Then he turned his attentions towards Googagoo. He made this honest king a very long speech indeed, laudatory of his own exceeding greatness, and of the comparative insignificance of every other king and chief in creation.

To all of this Googagoo listened with the politeness and urbanity inseparable from his nature.

But the king of the hundred islands, in a return speech, reminded 'Ngaloo that however great and glorious we were in this world, we must all die one day and go to another, where the Great Spirit would judge us according to the deeds done in the flesh, or forgive us if we trusted the Son that He had long, long ago sent to save us.

Alas! 'Ngaloo was not much impressed by the earnest words of Googagoo.

He was silent for a short time, as if in deep thought; then he spoke to the following effect:

"Very likely all you say is true; but I suppose in the next world I will be just as big a chief, and have more territory than I have in this.

For," he added, "there is no getting over the greatness of 'Ngaloo."

It took the united armies a whole week to reach King Kara-Kara's country.

Harry had taken the precaution to keep his people quite separate and well in advance of 'Ngaloo's, and gave strict orders to Walda and his other officers to watch for the slightest signs of, treachery on the part of 'Ngaloo.

Our hero mistrusted him, and perhaps he had reason; but, on the other hand, he need not have done so either, for "the greatest king in all the world" was so frequently overcome by frequent applications to his fire-water commissariat, that he had to be carried in a gra.s.s-cloth hammock nearly all the way.

It was forest land mostly which they traversed, woods filled with chattering monkeys and bright-winged silent birds, woods in which lions roared and hyaenas laughed all night long, woods often dripping with dank dews, and at times so dark by day that it was difficult to find a way through them.

But anon they would come to open glades and glens among the hills and mountains, with clear streams rippling through them, in which many a l.u.s.ty trout gambolled and fed, with sweet bird-voices and the murmur of insect life, making music in the air, every creature happy and busy, because of the suns.h.i.+ne that gladdened all.

They came at last to the foot of the mountain or conical hill, where Harry's unhappy s.h.i.+pmates were imprisoned.

Some slight show of resistance was made by those beneath, while those at the top and on guard rolled down great stones and rocks upon them.

But Harry's brave fellows, he himself at the head of them--he well knew how to climb a hill--took the place with one wild determined rush.

Many of the a.s.saulters were wounded and some were killed with the descending stones, so that their savage instincts got the better of their judgment, and in spite of all that Harry could do, an ugly scene of carnage took place as soon as the fort was captured. Harry had found his men at last. And not a whit too soon, for at the very moment when, waving his victorious sword on high, he scaled the last parapet, they were being ordered out for instant execution.

Ordered out? From what? Out, dear reader, from one of the most loathsome dungeons it is possible to imagine, dark, slimy, dismal, and filled with noisome vapours, a dungeon that for months they had shared with centipedes and slimy, slow-creeping lizards.

And all this time their food had been only raw ca.s.sava root and a modic.u.m of half-putrid water.

And now Harry Milvaine, their beloved officer, stood in their midst.

They had not forgotten their discipline, for each and all touched their brows by way of salute.

"My poor fellows?" said Harry, his voice half-choked with emotion.

It was the first kind words they had heard for years. No wonder they broke down, and that those once st.u.r.dy British sailors--babies now in their very weakness--sobbed over Harry's hands or hugged him in their feeble arms.

Harry had been telling Walda that, in all probability, there would be a quarrel with 'Ngaloo about his s.h.i.+pmates, the survivors of the _Bunting's_ men, and that there would possibly be some fighting.

"But," said Walda, "I know the people of King 'Ngaloo well; they do not love fighting, they would rather cross the hills to their own homes."

"Yes, true, Walda; but the king--the king. Remember that he rules over them, and if he bids them fight, then fight they must, and will."

"Ah! the king!" replied the wily Walda. "Yes, to be sure, only they will not fight if he does not order them to do so."

"No, Walda. But why do you smile? Now you are laughing outright. What amuses you, Walda?"

"Not anything much," said Walda, "but--leave the king to me."

Harry with his men and Googagoo's army were to start the very next morning, against all odds, however fearful these might be; so, to be ready for any emergency, he drew his people well to the north, at some distance from those of 'Ngaloo's. And then they camped all night ready armed.

But Walda had managed matters very prettily. He had sat up with King 'Ngaloo nearly all night, telling him wonderful stories of his own invention, and every now and again helping his majesty to another dose of his beloved fire-water.

The consequence of all this was, that when Googagoo and Harry went to bid him goodbye next morning in the hammock where he still lay, they found him rather forgetful of all recent events, but otherwise in a most amiable mood indeed.

The king said farewell at least a dozen times.

He shook hands with each of his visitors _more_ than a dozen times.

And his last words were these:

"'Ngaloo is the greatest king in all the world. Don't forget 'Ngaloo.

Come again and see the greatest king in all the world. Don't forget Ngaloo."

"I'm not likely to," said Harry, shaking hands again.

Then away he went, laughing.

And the march northwards was commenced at once.

Two of the men of the _Bunting_ had to be carried a great part of the way, but they got stronger and stronger as the time went on, and could soon both stand and walk.

They found the boats precisely where they had left them, and in a few hours all were back once more--though sadly thinned in ranks--at their homes in the hundred islands.